Magic Side: Wolf Bound Complete Series: Books 1-4, page 91
Ethan followed my gesture and stared furiously at the TV. I could smell his rage and irritation.
“Ethan, this is real. Trust us. We know what to do,” Jaxson said.
He turned. “Devi, since you let them in, take them and debrief them. Get any information we can use.”
Jaxson grabbed Ethan’s arm, and the archmage’s eyes flared. “You need to get us in there,” Jaxson insisted.
He shook his head. “Bentham is an Order issue. We’ll resolve it.”
I stepped up and gave him the look. “Not without our help. No matter what you do, Dragan will just find another host. We have the only means of containing him.”
“And we know Dragan. We know what’s at stake,” Jaxson growled.
Ethan pulled his arm free. “That’s dandy. But the rioters took over and initiated a lockdown. They have control over the entire place, and they’re making sure that no one gets in or out. So as you can see, the situation is, at the moment, a bit fucked.”
“You must have an entry,” I pleaded. “Get us in. We know how to stop him. We’ve done it before.”
Ethan laughed. “Yeah, I’m not letting the irreputable alpha of Dockside through the back door of Bentham. I wouldn’t have a single werewolf locked up there within a week.”
Without a second’s hesitation, Jaxson growled, “I’ll take a blood oath to never reveal its location or use it without your permission. Savannah and I both will. But we need to be part of the team that goes inside.”
Ethan looked incredulous. “You’re kidding. You’re that eager to join a prison riot?”
Jaxson’s rage boiled over, and his savage energy pulsed through the room. Although his claws and fangs erupted, he kept his voice low and hard. “I will do whatever it takes to protect my pack. If Dragan succeeds, their souls will be at stake. This city will be at stake. I would fucking make a deal with a necromancer, if that’s what it took. If that’s not your mindset right now, then you’d better get there, because the fucking apocalypse is coming.”
Everyone in the room grew deathly still, and I could feel their fear rising.
Neither Jaxson nor Ethan moved.
Finally, the archmage smiled warmly. “Well, then, I guess it’s good that I only have to make a deal with a werewolf and not a demon. Tell me, how much do you hate getting wet?”
51
Savannah
The cold spray soaked me to my bones as the Order’s Zodiac Sea Rib screamed across lake Michigan, jackhammering through the waves. I’d quickly grown numb to the chill, jarring impacts, and earsplitting roar of the engines.
The only thing on my mind was Dragan, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Bentham Island.
A dark storm had formed above the prison, building in whorls like a slow cyclone—just as the clouds had appeared above the graveyard. That meant Dragan’s ritual was already underway.
“Not good,” Jaxson said, as if reading my mind.
I let my gaze sweep over our team, wondering if they shared my ominous feeling. In addition to Jaxson, our boat held Devi, Ethan, and two agents I didn’t know, plus a captain and deckhand.
Not much for facing down an entire prison of psycho murderers.
Our team was small on purpose. According to Ethan, the entrance to the prison was underwater and could accommodate only a few people at a time. We would have to dive down, infiltrate the prison, and get to the control room to bring an end to the lockdown so that the rest of the mages could get in.
Jaxson leaned over and whispered, “If you get any tenser, your claws are going to come out and tear through the side of the Zodiac.”
Heat flushed my cheeks, and I jerked my hands away from the inflatable hull. There were a few nuances about being a werewolf that could sneak up on you.
Hoping the others couldn’t hear my whisper over the roar of the engines, I bent my head close to his. “Last time we faced Dragan, we had over a dozen people on our side, and he still got away. This time, he’s got a whole prison at his disposal.”
Jaxson smiled. “True. But all we have to do this time is take the control room back. The prison was built to handle riots, just not sabotage from within.”
I looked up at the storm forming over Bentham as trepidation sank further into my heart. “Well, those clouds tell me that we might run out of time.”
Jaxson gently traced my jaw and brought my eyes back to his. “The only one who’s run out of time is Dragan. We have the talisman. This is it.”
I touched the tiny drybag in my pocket that contained the talisman Devi had made. I felt the conviction of Jaxson’s words and wished I could believe them.
As we approached the towering walls of the prison, the Zodiac slowed. The captain consulted his GPS and began to maneuver the craft into position.
Ethan unzipped a black duffle and began passing out full face masks. “The entrance is at the base of the island. Each of these masks is enchanted to provide thirty minutes of fresh air, but we shouldn’t need more than ten. They also have intercoms, but they’re shit.”
“So we just swim down to the bottom and what, find a door?” I asked as I tried to figure out how my mask worked.
“Essentially correct. I’ll head down with a line and secure it. When I tug three times, you’ll all follow me down, one by one. Give the person ahead of you about a ten-second lead. When you get to the bottom, do your best not to kick up sediment. Whatever you do, don’t panic. If you can’t manage the swim, return to the surface, and the captain will take you back.”
“That won’t be a problem,” I said, more confidently than I felt. “Will we need fins?”
“No. I’ll take some because I have to hunt for the door. But you all can just descend the line. After I’ve disabled the warding spells on the entrance, Jaxson will help me open the hatch. Follow me down the tunnel, and then we’ll swim up to an exit pool. After that, we’ll review the plan from there. Any questions?”
We all shook our heads.
Ethan turned to the captain. “Are we in position?”
He gave the thumbs-up.
“Okay, everybody, masks on.” He fitted his over his face and tightened the straps. Turning a switch on the top of the mask, he flicked on an integrated head lamp.
I did my best to imitate him and turned on my light. Once Jaxson had his own mask on, he checked that my straps were tight.
“—ound che—” Ethan’s voice crackled over the intercom.
We all checked in one by one. He sighed and shook his head as he pulled on a pair of fins. “All the magi—in the–orld, and you think the Ord—could find masks to enchant that weren’t a piece of sh—fzzzzzt.”
His voice crackled out.
Great.
Ethan picked up the end of a silver spool of line and positioned himself on the side of the boat. He gave a thumbs-up to the captain, who shifted into neutral and flashed the sign in return.
“—lip backward, like this.” And with that, Ethan tumbled over the side into the lake with a solid splash. The silver line zipped as it fed into the dark below. One of the agents kept their hand on it, letting it run through his gloved fingers.
Then we waited.
Every so often, the line went loose for a while, and the agent pulled slack in. But it always fed back out.
Minutes ticked by as we rocked in the waves. My stomach lurched with every bob, and I very soon realized that I hadn’t calculated seasickness into the equation.
I hope I don’t barf in my mask.
I was totally unprepared for this shit. There’d been no time to change, and I was still dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and boots.
Man, this is going to suck. Wet jeans and sloshy speed boots. Chafe city.
This is why I think clothes are silly. Fur just makes so much more sense, Wolfie observed.
Obviously, we were far beyond the limits of safe operation protocols, but it seemed that protocols were things that went away when shit hit the fan. I guess when someone was threatening to bring a wrathful wolf god down on the city, the paperwork could go to hell.
Finally, the line jerked in the agent’s hand once, twice, three times.
Ethan was on target. The agent passed the line to one of the deckhands and gave us the thumbs-up. “Everyone ready?”
I added my thumbs-up to those of the group.
“Follow my lead, one at a time,” the agent said. Then he grabbed a bag off the bottom of the Zodiac and backflipped over the side with his hand firmly on his mask to keep it in place. As soon as he surfaced, he gave an okay sign by touching the top of his head.
The remaining agent pointed at me. “I’ll go last. You’re next. You look like you’re gonna hurl if you don’t get off soon.”
I gave Jaxson an apprehensive look, then shimmed myself so I was balanced precariously on the side of the rocking Zodiac. Devi gave me a broad grin and two thumbs-ups. “See you on the bottom!”
After making sure the talisman was safely secured in my zip pocket, I put my hand on my mask and took a deep breath. “Bombs away!”
I launched myself backward and hit the water with an icy splash. When I surfaced, Jaxson was leaning over the side. “You all right?”
I gave the okay sign. “Yeah, but I’m beginning see why you hate the water. Here I go.”
With my hand on the silver line, I did a half dive and descended into the cool, dark lake.
Kicking with my boots should have been almost impossible, but they jetted me downward like a pair of fins. Apparently, the appellation Swiftley applied underwater as well.
Within seconds, I’d caught up to the agent ahead of me and slowed my kicking. The hazy light faded as we descended, though the headlamp and my werewolf vision compensated for the darkness and allowed me to make out faint shapes.
Slowly, the bottom resolved into view as we reached the rocky side of Bentham Island.
Ethan’s light flashed below. He’d tied the line off to an old bit of rebar, but he was twenty feet over, waving his hands. The agent ahead of me cleared off the line and, careful to not stir up the sediment, swam over to Ethan to help illuminate his work.
Jaxson and I followed to make room.
Ethan was weaving his hands in the water, tracing runes over the rocks, much as Damian had done in Mexico. I assumed he was reciting a spell, but he’d turned his coms off.
Slowly, the stone began to glow, and then the runes dissolved in a sparkle of gold light, revealing a round white hatch with a crank wheel in the middle of it. Ethan touched his mask to switch on his coms. “I have to unl—k the spells prote—ing the door. This will take a couple m—tes. Hold tight, and—n’t swim off.”
He nodded to Devi and the last agent as they swam over, then returned to tracing golden lines on the hatch. I shivered from the cold. Hopefully, this would go quickly.
With nothing to do but wait, I looked out into the dim waters surrounding the base of the island. Trash was nestled everywhere among the rocks. An old tire. Bits of wood covered with zebra mussels. A plastic six-pack holder. Corroded cans.
My mouth went sour with disgust. People were horrible.
Something flickered in the distance, and my pulse skipped a beat. I peered through the gloom. My werewolf eyes allowed me to pick out the details of a jumble of old wood resting on the rocks.
Then it happened again—a faint flash of pale green.
My heartbeat accelerated, and I grabbed Jaxson’s hand.
His voice crackled over the intercom. “What is it?”
I shook my head. “Just thought I saw something.”
Devi and the others tensed and looked around.
It happened again, but this time, instead of a flash, it was a rolling image that appeared for a second and faded away. A translucent wooden boat positioned where the timber lay.
My breath caught. It was an old shipwreck. I’d seen a ghost ship.
I shivered again, this time not from the cold.
Suddenly, the wound on my shoulder began to itch and throb. I turned around as an apparition moved toward me across the rocks—the ghost of a sailor. His face was drawn, and his ethereal skin was rotting.
My stomach turned.
For one second, he looked at me, and I heard him speak in my mind. Beware, young lass: it took our ship, and now it’s coming for you!
Just as quickly as he’d come, the ghost disappeared.
Fear iced my skin, and I squeezed Jaxson’s hand. “Something’s coming, and I don’t think it’s good.”
Ethan paused and toggled his mic. “I’m al—st done. Don’t get jumpy.”
I twisted back to glare at him. “I’m not jumpy. A ghost just told me the thing that killed him is coming our way.”
“A ghost?” Devi asked.
“Everybo—get ready,” Jaxson said. “This is real.”
His body hardened next to mine, and he moved slightly in front of me, even though we had no idea which way the thing was coming from.
I felt it first, like a current rising and pushing against us. Something big enough to disturb the water column. I looked back at the flickering image of the shipwreck. Shit.
I began summoning my magic. “Whatever is coming, it’s big enough to sink a ship.”
“Get that h—tch open, Ethan,” Jaxson growled over the crackling coms.
52
Savannah
My pulse pounded in my temples, fogging my mind. A sea monster was headed our way. What had attracted it? Our sound? Our lights?
My lips were dry, and I tried to think. “Okay, nobody talk. I’m going to make a dome of darkness around us, and maybe it won’t be able to see us.”
Praying that the creature used vision and not scent or sound, I called my magic and shaped the midnight blue shadows around us. My muscles strained as I pushed the darkness outward. Instead of just creating a cloud, I created a dome—hollow like a bowl, so our headlamps would still work within.
Devi gave a start as the sunlight overhead faded, leaving us in blackness except for the anemic beams of our lights.
Everyone looked around frantically, but only I could see beyond the veil of darkness. And what I could see was beyond my imagination.
At first, a massive shadow formed in the deep blue-green of the water. Then it resolved into the long, sinuous form of an eel winding its way toward us. My heart clenched while my muscles ached from the strain of keeping the shadows around us. Its body was silver-blue and at least three feet in diameter. Two twisted horns sprouted from its head, and strange peaked plates ran along its back.
Most significantly, its jaws were open wide enough to swallow a person whole.
I stood frozen, concealed in the magical darkness. Please don’t notice us.
The serpent came within twenty feet, but it looked past us with its pale eyes and just kept swimming.
I pulled Jaxson close, trying to calm my beating heart. If only he could see it. Then I wouldn’t be the only one who had to stare death in the face.
Every part of me wanted to scream, but I stifled the sound as the enormous creature slowed and cautiously skirted the dome of darkness I’d created.
Waves of pressure pushed against us as its undulating body churned the water. Momentarily knocked over, Ethan looked up and uselessly scanned the darkness. I gestured frantically at the door with both hands, willing him to get it open now, damn it!
At last, the thing’s impossibly long tail passed us as it swam to inspect the remains of the wreck.
“Jaxson. I need a hand,” Ethan whispered over the coms.
Kicking powerfully, Jaxson jetted toward the hatch. He grabbed hold of the wheel, and together, they heaved against it. I could hear them straining over the coms.
Then there was a heart-stopping squeal of metal grinding as the wheel began to turn.
My blood turned to ice water, and I glanced toward the shipwreck. The creature was gone.
The crack of a breaking seal reverberated across the rocks, and the hatch groaned as Jaxson slowly forced it open.
A shadow appeared in the distance, and then the monster surged into view—no longer lazily winding its way through the water but barreling directly toward the source of the sound. Us.
“Everyone in now! Sea serpent coming right at us!” I yelled over the coms. In my panic, I inadvertently released my magic and the shadows around us dropped. “Go, go, go!”
In a frantic cluster, we swam to the hatch and slipped though one by one as the thing hurtled for us with jaws opened wide. Jaxson grabbed me roughly and shoved me through headfirst, then slipped in behind.
Our headlamps flashed around the chamber. Six swimmers. With all of us in, Jaxson and Ethan pulled the hatch shut. For one second, as it closed, I saw a brief flash of silver-blue scales pass through in the light of Jaxson’s headlamp. Then he and Ethan began to spin the wheel to seal the door.
Suddenly, the whole chamber shook as something huge slammed against the hatch from outside, buckling the metal.
Ethan and Jaxson strained to turn the wheel, but it barely budged. Ethan shook his head. “Okay, the door just became a problem for later. Let’s go.”
I grabbed his arm. “We need to get out of here fast. That hatch is almost the exact diameter of that thing’s body.”
He nodded and pushed between us in the crowded tunnel. “Point taken. Follow me.”
In single file, we swam down the tunnel. Every so often, Ethan stopped to do something, tracing runes along the side of the walls, and every so often, a dull shudder reverberated from behind us.
The corridor branched several times, and I was certain that I didn’t want to know what devious traps lay down the wrong passages.
At last, we reached a silo-like chamber that ascended into the gloom above. Ethan waved us forward, and we spiraled up as a group.
Finally, after what must have been a hundred feet, I broke the surface, Jaxson at my side. Our headlamps traced the walls with beams of light as we looked around. It was a small, rectangular concrete chamber.
Jaxson heaved himself out of the water onto the crumbling platform. Smiling through his foggy mask, he reached out his hand. “Well, we lived.”
